A-G and CC Courses Explained: What Parents Need To Know For High School Planning
Last month, I sat across from my 10th grader Leo’s high school counselor at fall parent-teacher conferences, my coffee cup leaving a faint brown ring on the edge of her desk. I’d just finished listening to Leo’s English teacher talk about how he turns in creative journal entries that make her laugh, when the counselor slid a printed course-planning worksheet across the table and said, “Let’s make sure he’s got his A-G and CC credits locked in before junior year, if he’s set on state school.” I nodded slowly, folded the worksheet into my purse, and didn’t admit I had only a vague idea what either of those terms meant. By the time I got to my car, I’d texted my little sister, who works as a high school counselor in Los Angeles, with one line: A-G and CC courses, need help.
We met for tacos that weekend, Leo was at a friend’s skate birthday party, so we had an hour to hash it out over chips and salsa. I admitted I’d always assumed that if Leo met our district’s high school graduation requirements, he’d automatically be eligible for any state college. That was my first mistake, she told me—one that most parents make until they’re already dealing with the fallout.
She broke it down simply, no fancy education jargon. A-G is the set of course requirements the University of California and California State University systems require for freshman admission. Each letter lines up with a different subject area: A for history/social science, B for English, C for math, D for lab science, E for a language other than English, F for visual and performing arts, and G for college prep electives. You need a minimum number of completed years in each category, and a 3.0 GPA or higher in those courses, just to submit an application. The catch? Only courses officially approved for the A-G list count. A course name doesn’t mean anything—if your high school didn’t renew its approval for that class one year, it doesn’t count toward admission, even if it counts toward high school graduation.
That’s exactly the problem we had. Leo took an introductory digital media class at his high school this year, thinking it would check the box for the F-category art requirement he needs. The course description listed it as an art elective, so we didn’t think twice. Turns out, the school let its A-G approval lapse last year when the teacher who taught the course retired. So that half-year class we thought checked a box didn’t count at all.
That’s where CC courses came in. CC here stands for concurrent enrollment—courses taken at a local community college while you’re still enrolled in high school. A lot of people assume concurrent enrollment is only for kids who want to get a jump on college credits or are behind on graduation requirements, but it’s actually one of the easiest, cheapest fixes for A-G gaps.
My sister walked me through the steps, which ended up being way simpler than I expected. First, pull up the official UC A-G course search tool online, type in your high school, and cross-check every course your kid is signed up for against the approved list. It takes 10 minutes, max. I did it that night while I waited for my laundry to finish drying, and sure enough, that digital media class wasn’t anywhere on the list.
Next, we checked our local community college’s concurrent enrollment page. Almost all community colleges in California have a public list of pre-approved A-G courses for high school students, and most are either free or cost less than $20 total, way cheaper than private online college prep classes. Because Leo needed a F-category art credit, we found a 10-week online digital photography course that fit the bill. It’s self-paced, only requires about an hour of work a week, and it’s taught by a working photographer that Leo already follows on Instagram.
The only extra step I’d tell any parent to do that we did: before you pay any fees or register for the course, shoot a quick one-line email to your high school’s A-G coordinator to confirm the CC course will count on your kid’s transcript. It took me two days to get a reply, no in-person meeting required, and we had confirmation we were good to go before Leo even logged into the first class.
I get why this whole system is so confusing for parents. Schools send out 15-page course catalogs every year, throw around all these acronyms, and assume someone has explained what they mean. Most high school counselors are spread thin—Leo’s counselor has 350 students on her caseload, she can’t check every kid’s course list for unapproved classes every year. It’s not anyone’s fault, it’s just how underfunded public schools work right now. A 10-minute check once a year before you finalize course schedules is enough to catch most gaps before they become big problems.
Last week, I asked Leo how the digital photography class was going. He said he’s been shooting photos of the skate park at sunset for his assignments, and he’s having more fun with it than most of his regular high school classes. There’s no daily homework, no pop quizzes, just a few projects he gets to work on at his own pace. I was worried he’d see it as extra, unnecessary work, but he doesn’t mind.
We got lucky this time. We caught the gap in 10th grade, so we had plenty of time to fix it before application season. If we’d waited until senior year, it could’ve messed up his eligibility for the schools he wants to attend. Now I just add that 10-minute A-G check to my to-do list every year when course registration opens. Last week, Leo mentioned he’s also thinking about applying to a private art school in Oregon, which has totally different course requirements. So I’ll be digging into that next month, and I’ll probably text my sister another panic message when I don’t understand the fine print.
Please indicate: Thinking In Educating » A-G and CC Courses Explained: What Parents Need To Know For High School Planning